Singing Concert

Midge had her singing recital on Saturday. She did a great job. Her first song was "Old King Cole". I could tell that she was nervous because she was one of the first to sing and she was very quiet. Usually at home she belts out this song. Luckily for the second song she was able to perform it towards the end of the concert and I think she was able to get out her butterflies because she really hammed up the second song which is called "Be Kind to Your Parents". She is such a little performer. When her teacher proposed the songs on her first lesson and she started singing "Be Kind to Your Parents" I cracked up because it is so perfect for Midge.

Black and Blue

On Monday I was at a ladies house and Huck had climbed onto a small rocking chair and was standing up facing backwards. His sister Little Miss was sitting on the front. One of the ladies saw it and gasped and Little Miss thinking she was in trouble jumped up, which caused the rocking chair to tip backwards and Huck fell smacking his head on the low windowsill.

Previous to this he had tipped forward on the asphalt and then feel and

cut his lip on the stroller.

Ken said we are just going to place him in a helmet until he learns to be more steady.

Maybe 5 or 6 years old.

Should I tell you that today Huck was sitting in his highchair and decided he was done. Since Daddy was busy working at the computer a few feet away and was ignoring his requests (ie. grunts) to pull off his tray he decided to take matters into his own hands. This meant wiggling out of his seat (the tray was on people), climbing on to his tray.

This was about the moment Ken looked up...only to see his one year old stand up on the tray and jump off or rather down. Huck landed on his feet. Well sort of. He landed doing the splits. But he didn't land the opposite, which would have been his head.

So now what do we do? Helmet? Wrap the kid in bubble wrap? Boy are we in for it!

Swim Meet

Midge had a swim meet last night. She did a great job. Here Ken is cheering her on and coaching from the sideline. Notice that she has already lapped the boy in the lane next to her.

Here is Midge's #1 fan. The other night Ken took Huck to one of her practices. Huck was watching her swim laps. He laid down on the cement next to the pool on his stomach and started kicking and paddling his arms like his older sister. Looks like we have another future swimmer in the family.

Here is Midge waiting for the signal to start. She had some amazing starts.

We brought along a family friend. He was so funny and kept encouraging her and giving "good" advice. One of his tips when she was swimming against a boy was "when the coach says go, yell 'hey call me' he will be surprised and then you take off and beat him". Another time he said "feel the water, be the water, float with the currents around you".

The cheering squad.

In the end she had 7 first place finishes. Way to go kiddo!

25 Freestyle 19:93 (Personal Record)

25 Backstroke 22:97 (PR)

25 Breaststroke 30:46 (PR)

25 Butterfly 31:31 (PR)

50 Freestyle 50:34 (PR)

50 Backstroke 58:82 (PR)

100 Freestyle 1:56.36 (PR improvement of 11 seconds!)

Playtime

During Spring Break we needed a place for the kids to get their energy out. I found a place in Eugene called Bounce Gymnastics. We have gone to NAAG and it is great, but I have heard that it is going to be moving to west Eugene and frankly the smell of sweat is a little gross. This place is smaller than NAAG, but it is great for kids under 6.

The highlight was the trampolines.

Little Miss was in a funky mood that day, but I was able to snap one picture of her

when she wasn't crying or sulking.

Playdate

Earlier this week we were supposed to go to Sunriver to see Ken's mom. Over the weekend I had a cold and I just didn't have the energy it takes to pack 5 suitcases, drive over the snow, cook meals, and clean my mother-in-law's house when we got there. We agreed that Ken would take the older two and I would keep the younger here.

By the Tuesday Little Miss was going a little crazy and suffering from cabin fever,

so we had her best friend over.

Little Miss's friend tried to teach her hop scotch.

The sun was out and it was beautiful so they had a little picnic.

I love watching these two it is like 2 peas in a pod. They love spending time together.

Baby Huck was been showing us his new tricks at driving -

I think we need to be a little worried for when he gets older.

Keep your eyes on the road there little guy.

I wish I had pictures of the older two's adventures sledding in the mountains, swimming, doughnuts for breakfast, but all those pictures are on my mother-in-laws camera. It was interesting to have just the younger two for several days. They reminded me so much of Midge and Leo at the same age. They played great together and I kept having flashbacks.

The off off Broadway Version of The Wizard of Oz

The local library puts on a puppet show workshop every year. The kids get to create their puppets out of clay, paint them, and design and make costumes. Midge was able to do it last year and was excited to do it again this year in the production of Wizard of Oz.

Celeste Rose is the director who manages all of the kids. She is a bit quirky, but she is able to wrangle the kids and produce a show that at times is a bit rusty but always fun for the kids. When you consider that they start from nothing and in 4 short sessions produce a show it is pretty amazing.

This year Midge was a munchkin...

and the horse of many colors (the guard of the Emerald City).

The production had the scarecrow.

the tinman,

the cowerdly lion, Dorthy...

and even the wizard.

Even a few flying monkeys.

The audience was mostly memorized.

Or at least they pretended to be...

All the way to the final bow.

At the beginning of the show Midge did a solo of Some Where Over the Rainbow. She amazes us all with her singing talent - definitely something she got from her dad. She was nervous, but she is also so amazingly brave. There is nothing like the feeling inside when you see your child get up in front of a crowd and despite their butterflies sing their heart out.

Light's Out

Last Sunday the power went out at our house for almost 7 hours. It was

interesting to see what gaping holes we had regarding supplies and where we

were doing well. The kids loved playing with the flashlights.

Midge has a standing weekly date where she reads the Book of Mormon with her grandma over the phone every Sunday night. The power outage did not deter this. In fact I over heard her tell Mimi that she felt a little like Joseph Smith when he first read the Bible by candle light.

Of course he didn't have a cell phone in hand, but he might have had a sibling near by.